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Medicaid to Take $2B Hit in Cuts

Posted on: Thursday, 20 April 2006, 18:00 CDT

By Anthony Gottschlich, Dayton Daily News, Ohio

Apr. 20--The skyrocketing cost of health care is forcing the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to slash $2 billion from Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

Among those cuts, the department proposes stripping $8 million from its Ohio Home Care program, which helps fund in-home nursing care for patients who might otherwise live in a nursing home or extended-care center.

The Ohio Council for Home Care, which represents 363 home care and hospice agencies in the state, thinks that's a bad idea. Here's why, according to the group:

-- Surveys show patients and families prefer long-term care in their homes over nursing homes and other health care institutions. Home care keeps families together without overburdening family members.

-- Home care is a cost-effective solution. The average cost of in-home care is $12,600 a year, or $34.50 a day. In a nursing home it would be more than $55,000 a year, or $153 a day.

Jon Allen, spokesman for Job and Family Services, said 430 agencies across the state and about 4,500 independent health care providers will be affected by the cuts, if they're approved May 15 by the state Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.

State Medicaid director Tracy Williams said cuts were made across the Medicaid program because expenses are growing faster than state revenues. The program was facing double-digit cost increases had cuts not been made, she said.

"We were really trying to leave no stone unturned," Williams said, adding that approximately 25,000 working parents in Ohio lost Medicaid this year because of budget cuts related to health care inflation.

"You can't take $2 billion out of any one area of the program," she said. "There's really lots of these examples throughout the program."

The cuts to home care must be approved by lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, which meets May 15 on the issue.

State Rep. Fred Strahorn, D-Dayton, who sits on the committee, said there's little the committee can do to stop the cuts, but he can try to convince the department to cut elsewhere.

"My feeling is it is bad policy, but at times the department is handcuffed by what the legislature passes," Strahorn said, referring to the state budget. "This is clearly not the place I think we should be cutting."

A public hearing on the cuts to home care is scheduled for 10 a.m. April 27 in the Lobby Hearing Room of the James A. Rhodes State Office Tower, 30 E. Broad St., Columbus.

For more on Ohio Home Care and proposed changes, visit http://jfs.ohio.gov/Ohp/ohc/ohc.stm

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Copyright (c) 2006, Dayton Daily News, Ohio

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Source: Dayton Daily News

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